Question: If there are problems in relations between people, does Kabbalah help solve these problems?

Answer: Partly. I cannot say that in everything at once. I cannot say that a person begins to study and it immediately becomes clear to him where he is and how he should act. This is not the case. But a person begins to understand how he should act in order not to make mistakes.

Although these actions may not be entirely convenient for him—actions of bestowal, actions of benevolence, love, and so on—they show him in which direction he must act in order to be in the correct relationship with the universe, with nature, with all the forces that affect us. Put yourself in a state where all forces will act on him for the good.
[281946]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/4/21

Related Material:
Knowledge Of Kabbalah Is Indispensable
The Sinking Of Science: The Past Pride Of Humanity
We Will Not Be Able To Hide In An Eco-Bunker

Filed under: Children, Education, Kabbalah Study, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Recently, I see how people close to me seem to have turned over. They were full of feelings, the meaning of life, joy, hatred, and love. And suddenly indifference to the goal, to others, to the troubles of others, to the happiness of others. There is not even envy.

Suddenly such a state came after all this crises, all these blows. Suddenly the person hid in this niche and it is good for him to live in it. What is it?

Answer: First, it is the awareness of a person. That is, a person must realize and say that he is in such a state. “I was struck by this state. I am in it, and I do not see how I can get out of it.”

Comment: But if so, this is already a prayer. He already wants to get out of this state.

My Response: No, he doesn’t want to. The fact of the matter is that he sees that he does not want anything, he is absolutely apathetic to what is happening, and has an unwillingness to change anything because he sees that nothing can be changed! And no matter what he does, it will, perhaps, only get worse.

“Therefore, we do not need to change anything! So we will live as long as we need, we will live, when necessary, we will die. Everything will be fine. Why twitch? We see that from all our interventions in what is happening things can only be worse. Let’s not do anything, let’s leave it all. Like in a boat, we see that we can’t get anywhere and do nothing. Let’s throw away the oars, we’ll sit quietly.”

Question: And he even sort of feels good?

Answer: Of course he feels good. You understand that you surrender yourself to the will of the waves.

Question: You made an accurate diagnosis. Now, how can we get a person out of this or not?

Answer: Who can one withdraw? Who has the ability and understanding of where to withdraw?

Comment: Sit down and talk to him.

My Response: About what? What can I tell him?! I can tell him the other way around: “You have come to the correct conclusion. Sit down and don’t fuss.”

Exactly. Because he has no solution, he does not know or understand anything. He is not in connection with the forces of nature that attract us to somewhere. And therefore, the best thing about it is to surrender to the will of the waves.

When Rabbi Akiva was asked how he escaped from the sinking ship, he said: “I grabbed the board, bridled it, sat on it, and for all the waves that passed, I bent my head, and they passed over me. And so these waves pushed me to the shore. Why? Because I did not resist them.”

Question: That is, you propose, as a recipe for a person in this state, first of all, not to interfere. Secondly, that he be in this state of floating at the behest of the waves?

Answer: Yes. And this is the most true when you surrender to the will of nature. Because you still have no other choice. And in nature you know that there are great forces, there is a great mind, and there is something that is above us, some laws, unknown to us, eternal, and so on. And there is something in it that still controls us. So why should I resist? I will only drain my strength, fall to the bottom of my boat, and that’s it.

Comment: So your advice is to wait? Time will take its toll.

My Response: It’s not just waiting. This is a type of prayer, this is agreement with the higher nature: “I am ready to obey you.”

Comment: Do what you want with me.

My Response: Yes. And in fact, you always do what you want with me. But now I finally begin to feel that I don’t need more. This is already a stage of comprehension, a stage of communication.

Question: That is, if a person comes to this thought, this is already a great advance toward the Creator, one might say, toward the law of nature, which governs everything?

Answer: Of course. He does not climb with his limited thoughts when he wants to spoil nature even more and more. Enough! Do not get involved, do not interfere with the flow of nature and what it does to us! So it is said in the Torah too: “Sit and do nothing—it is preferable.”

Question: Is that how you feel about a person who has entered the spirit of indifference?

Answer: And he has nothing else. Where will it come from? Therefore, he is right. This is the surest way out in his condition.

Question: And what is your advice to me, as his friend?

Answer: It depends on how this friend can understand where he exists, in what forces of nature and if he can use these forces correctly. That is, add yourself to the same direction in which nature wants to lead him. That is, in this case, I do not resist the will of the waves. I am ready to go along with the waves in the same direction, also including my forces in this.

So everything is very peaceful, calm, and good.

Comment: So you have sung such a hymn to the indifferent now.

My Response: This is not indifferent, but reasonable.
[281856]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/22/21

Related Material:
A New Perspective On The Horizon
How To Get Rid Of Chronic Fatigue?
There Is No Fatigue In Bestowal

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Health, News - No Comments →

Zohar for All, VaYetze, item 14: Although these seven holy Havalim are the sustenance of the world, opposite them are seven Havalim from which all the Dinim [judgments] in the world come out.

There are seven original desires in each of us. They do not change.

If we use them for our own sake, they turn into the judgments directed at us. If we use them for the sake of bestowal, for connection with others, then they turn into blessings.

By connecting with each other in this way through our desires, we form a common body that begins to exchange energy, information, and vitality within itself and comes to life. To the extent of our connection, from inanimate stones we turn into vegetative, animate, and even human matter.

Therefore, the seven pillars (desires) can be negative, as today in our world we are driving ourselves into the ground by using them only for our own sake, thereby killing everything around us: both ourselves and the surrounding nature. Yet, we can turn this into a blessing.

Everything depends not on how we use what is around us, but on how we use ourselves. Our attitude to each other and to the surrounding nature determines everything. Therefore, it is written “Hevel Havalim (Vanity of vanities) are the sustenance of the world.” “Vanity of vanities” is my attitude to others. If I direct it incorrectly, it actually turns into evil and judgment.
[281829]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #13

Related Material:
What Is The Foundation Of The World?
Everything Is Vanity Of Vanities
The Plague Of The Century

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why was it necessary to shatter the common soul?

Answer: In order to understand what the Creator means.

Let us say you take a beautiful statue or something magnificent, an amazing work of nature, and break it into small pieces. You break the perfection, which is like the Creator. This is how Adam was created.

The Creator Himself takes and breaks His beloved, His only work, into billions of pieces. Why? How? If someone saw it from the side…! We do not understand why He created the world so evil, so dreadful. He created man so terrible, so low. The great, perfect, eternal Creator created something completely opposite to Himself, and yet enjoys that we are suffering here?!

How can this be? I would not wish this state we exist which in on any enemy: this flawed, petty, humiliated, state constantly in pursuit of somehow trying to fulfill ourselves. This is a terrible condition! If we are talking about the eternal and perfect Creator, the power that can do anything, He suddenly created such a thing?!

This is because we see ourselves in this broken state and do not understand that it is best. If we begin to gradually assemble ourselves from it, we will collect ourselves into the similarity of the Creator. Moreover, from this work, we will understand who the Creator is.

We will begin to understand the whole plan of the Creator: why He decided to reduce Himself to the level most opposite from the initial perfection and give us the opportunity to gradually create this perfection from ourselves?

People who want to rise to the level of the Creator wonder about the meaning of life, about the meaning of suffering: “What are they for? What is the meaning of our life? What is it about and what is its purpose?”

When these urgent questions arise in them and life is no longer smiling at them, they must find an answer to it. They feel that everything else has no flavor and all that is left to do is to plunge into drugs, alcohol, or whatever just to forget about this monotony. So, such people are shown from above that there is a method of achieving perfection, which is called the science of Kabbalah.

This method has been hidden for many thousands of years. The Book of Zohar, written two thousand years ago, says that it will be revealed in two thousand years, when we mature to realize that our world and our existence are flawed, we can do nothing with ourselves, and we face total despair.

That is when this Book will find a person and say: “Are you sure you are throwing up your hands in frustration? Then I Will show you the way.”
[276871]
From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #3

Related Material:
Collecting The Pieces Of The Common Soul
When Brothers Are Together
Puzzle “Adam HaRishon”

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Comment:  Igor wrote a comment about one of your videos about the last generation: “You have come up with a terrible name, the last generation. But I like this name. Yes, we are the last generation because the end of the world is approaching. And I am glad about it.”

My Response: I do not know what he imagines as the end of the world. I do depict the end of our world.

The last generation is the last generation of egoism, the last that exists in this egoism, in this terrible relationship between people, etc. And then the next generation will come. It is not the last; it is the first generation of the new world.

We are still the last generation. We must recognize the evil of all of our past states and simply swear that we will never use it again.

Question: This generation should realize the evil of egoism?

Answer: Yes. So much so that it will never return to it so that this impression from the recognition of evil will remain in it and serve as the correct support, the soil for germination of a new generation.

Question: What is your job? To make people understand and accept this?

Answer: To inform them that we are egoists, that we must rise above it, that we must take the positive force of nature as the basis of our existence and not the evil, not the negative force of nature. And thus move forward.

Question: When such people ask questions, it is clear where they are leading to, that there will be an apocalypse, the end of the world, it is written in many holy books. What does it mean? What is the end of the world?

Answer: The end of the world means the end of our egoistic existence.

Nature is eternal, nothing ends, we will not disappear. We will still grow over and over again. So, nothing threatens us. On the contrary, we will be forced to return to these states again and again in order to draw the right conclusion and live correctly.
[281726]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/15/21

Related Material:
The End Of Human Development Or A New Beginning?
It’s Hard Being Human…
A New Control

Filed under: Crisis, Dissemination, Globalization, News, Society - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Perception of Reality”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1″

Selected Highlights 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “The Rockets Expose the Myth of Coexistence”

The good thing about crises is that they expose the truth. After the Israeli War of Independence, Arabs remained in many places in Israel and became Israeli citizens. Over the years, it seemed as though we’ve learned to live together in peaceful coexistence. It was clear that there is no love between the two populations, and that the Israeli Arabs sympathized with the Palestinians in the West Bank, but they still chose to remain in Israel and lead a full civic life here, work alongside Israelis, trade with Israelis, and benefit from the amenities of a prosperous economy. For many years, it seemed as though the hatred that flared during the War of Independence had subsided thanks to the frequent contact with Israeli Jews. It was a myth. The rockets from Gaza and the riots in Jerusalem exposed the truth: Israeli Arabs identify themselves as Palestinians, and they only waited for a time when the Jewish society in Israel was divided and weak enough for them to expose that they, too, want the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. For some reason, we enjoy lying to ourselves. We cannot afford this luxury; we should tell ourselves the truth: Nothing has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel. The Arabs, who supported the Nazis in World War II, are just as keen to destroy us now as they have always been.

“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

We have to understand what Israel stands for in the world. The nation of Israel was “officiated” when descendants of strangers who were often hateful toward each other chose to unite above their enmity. By doing so, under the leadership of Abraham and his lineage, and finally under Moses, they set a precedent showing how people can overcome their egos and unite. “The Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which sparks of purity would flow onto the entire human race throughout the world,” to use the words of kabbalist Baal HaSulam. This purity, this unity above the ego, is the meaning of being “a light unto nations.”

But since human nature is selfish to the core, or as the Torah puts it, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21), Israel’s method of achieving peace among sworn enemies has put it on a collision course with the rest of humanity. In truth, no division is greater or deeper than the division between Israel and the rest of the world, and no hatred is more intense. The chasm between Israel and the nations is a projection of the chasm between the nature of giving and unity and the nature of receiving and selfishness. There is no compromise; in the end, only one will remain.

When Israel are united, they are powerful enough to deter any enemy. In fact, a united people of Israel has no enemies since the light of unity it emits attracts the nations toward it to learn how they, too, can unite. The book Sifrey Devarim (Item 354) writes that in antiquity, in times when Israel were united, people from the nations of the world would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Alas, today we are anything but united. And when we are disunited, we are powerless, and the world feels our weakness and wishes to seize the moment and destroy us. When we are disconnected from our unity, our anchor of strength, the ego takes over the world and wishes to destroy its only enemy: the people of Israel. “Israel will be a holy congregation and one association, as one man with one heart. Then, when unity restores Israel as before, Satan will have no place in which to place error and external forces,” writes the book Shem MiShmuel. “When they are as one man with one heart,” it continues, “they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” However, “If there is division among them,” writes the book Masechet Derech Eretz Zutah, “it is said about them (Hosea 10:2), ‘Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt.’”

This is what is happening today. We are suffering the consequences of the baseless hatred among us, and the whip is our neighbors. Our own disunity is the instigator of their violence, and the only fire extinguisher we have is our solidarity, our care for one another. If we can rise above the chasms in the Israeli society, we will prosper more than any other nation. If we do not, we will bear our guilt.

Filed under: Israel Today, New Publications, Society of the Future, Unity - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the role of the ten commandments today?“

The ten commandments represent desires to positively connect among each other and with our common source.

The Giving of the Torah takes place at the foot of Mount Sinai after the people of Israel accept the condition of Arvut (mutual guarantee)—to be united “as one man with one heart.”

Mount Sinai represents an enormous amount of hatred (“Sinai” stemming from the Hebrew word for “hatred” [“Sinah”]), rooted in our egoistic self-centered quality. We can rise above the immense ego and hatred, which divides us from each other and causes all the world’s ills, if we follow a single small desire that wishes only to love, bestow and positively connect. That small desire is called a “point in the heart” in the wisdom of Kabbalah: a tiny desire for spirituality within our “heart,” which represents the totality of our egoistic desires. In the Bible, this point is called “Moses,” which in Hebrew is “Moshe,” since this point “attracts” or “pulls” (“Moshech” in Hebrew) us out of our divisive ego and into the harmonious spiritual quality of love, bestowal and positive connection.

Mount Sinai is a gigantic amount of ego and hatred, similar to the Tower of Babel, but bigger because it is on a later degree of egoistic growth. The people of Israel standing at the bottom of Mount Sinai means that we are ready to rise above our divisive ego in order to unite. In other words, we agree to unite parts of our individual egos into one big mass, and not fear it even though it is a huge amount of hatred, because our focus is entirely on longing to positively connect with a mutual love and care for one another above our egoistic drives that itch away at us, which make us want to do everything but to connect in such a way.

When we unite in such a way, we form a demand for the revelation of the spiritual quality—love and bestowal—in our unity. The tendency to unite forms a true need for the spiritual quality of love and bestowal to dwell among us, what in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called a “Kli” (“vessel/tool/receptacle”) for spirituality. That is, the more we direct ourselves at connecting to each other, the more we discover our ego resisting connection, and this dual-motion eventually leads us to a true need for the spiritual quality of love and bestowal to dwell in our connection, since we increasingly find that without such a force, our ego forever blocks us off from each other. It is written that “From the love of the created beings, we come to love of the Creator.” We thus accept the condition of “Love your neighbor as yourself” and by doing so, discover the laws of spiritual connection that the ten commandments describe.

Based on the first part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on June 3, 2014, Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah.”
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Commandments, Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Learning to Control the Ego

Question: How does Kabbalah recommend resolving the contradictions between us?

Answer: Nature does not want to solve the contradictions, but actually quite the opposite, it wants to put us in such conflicts and contradictions that we will not be able to resolve and then we will either destroy each other or ascend to the next level above our nature.

Nature pressures us in a very clear, systematic, serious manner, and shows us that we will not be able to continue to exist egoistically. Our ego manages us and it is not to our benefit. We must learn how to manage it.

The Creator, who has created us as egoists and manages our fate, seemingly says: “It is time to leave the nest. I want you to manage yourselves, to be in charge of your own life, of your own fate. You must begin to control your ego, and I am giving you this opportunity. But in order to do so, you need to perfectly restore the connection with Me because I am the positive connection, and you must control the ego with the help of this connection.”

What does it mean to control the ego? To restrict it, to work with it not so that it awakens desires in us, but actually purposefully. This means that from this moment onward, I want to move forward so that I can manage myself. Not that the Creator should manage me, but that I should manage myself.

Each of us can picture what it means to leave the parents’ home. A time comes when we leave our parents and start gradually building our life. It takes time. On one hand we want to be free, but on the other hand, it is good when our parents take care of us.

Thus, leaving the parents is unpleasant: we either leave to another town, go to university, join the army, or something else happens in our lives. But generally speaking, it is a breakaway.

This is the reason why the Creator seemingly says, “You have grown, you have become detached, and now you need to start working on yourselves independently.” This work is called the work of the Creator when we can take both controlling forces from the Creator, the egoistic force and the altruistic force, and start managing ourselves like with two reins.

But what does it mean to manage ourselves? Suppose I sit in a carriage holding the reins and there is a horse in front of me (my ego) and I control it. The human being in me controls the beast in me. Unfortunately, I am not very successful in it. I forget, and I don’t really want it.

In principle, the Creator leads us to that. You see, a man is this concept when I want to ascend above the beast in me and resemble the Creator.
[247233]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/3/19

Related Material:
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 5
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 4
The Mystery Of The Unification Of The Masculine And Feminine, Part 3

Filed under: Man and Woman - No Comments →